For years I avoided playing this game because it looked so stupid and silly that I thought there was no way I could have fun. I have no idea why I decided why to go ahead and pull the trigger and start playing it. Turns out it is stupid but it was also very funny and a nice game to be able to turn off your brain and just play. Its weird to say about a game where your a shark that can fly 50 feet out of the water and your sole purpose is to eat everything in sight can be relaxing but it truly was for me.

The best part of this game by far is the narration, voiced by Chris Parnell. Maneater understands its game is off the rails and uses this opportunity to give Parnell some incredibly off the wall and funny lines. The gameplay at first is very fun but it does quickly become a game of hitting the same few buttons to eat anything whether it be a fish, seal, human, great white shark, a boat, or a sperm whale. To be honest though that was part of what I enjoyed about it in a way. I just sat back, turned off my brain, got collectables, attacked humans, and listened to Parnell say funny things. Its not a great game by any means but if you've just played some challenging games or a few long RPG's I think this game is a good option to kind of reset you mentally to get ready for your next challenge or long adventure.

Also fuck Scaly Pete.

2024 games played ranked.
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/games-i-played-in-2024-ranked-1/

She'll only come out at night
The lean and hungry type
Nothing is new, I've seen her here before
Watching and waiting
She's sitting with you but her eyes are on the door
So many have paid to see, what'd you think, you'd get it for free
The woman is wild, a she-cat tamed by the purr of a Jaguar
Money's the matter, if you're in it for love you ain't gonna get too far
Oh, here she comes
Watch out boy she'll chew you up
Oh, here she comes
She's a man eater
Oh, here she comes
Watch out boy she'll chew you up
Oh, here she comes
She's a man eater
I wouldn't if I were you, I know what she can do
She's deadly man, and she could really rip your world apart
Mind over matter
The beauty is there but a beast is in the heart
Oh, here she comes
Watch out boy she'll chew you up
Oh, here she comes
She's a man eater
Oh, here she comes
Watch out boy she'll chew you up
Oh, here she comes
She's a man eater
Oh, here she comes
Watch out boy she'll chew you up
Oh, here she comes
She's a man eater
Oh, here she comes
Oh she'll chew you up
Oh, here she comes
Here she comes
She's a man eater
Oh, here she comes
She'll only come out at night
Oh, here she comes
Here she comes she's a man eater
Oh, here she comes
The woman is wild oh
Oh, here she comes
Here she comes watch out boy watch out boy
Oh, here she comes
Oh watch out watch out watch out watch out
Oh here she comes
She's a man eater

A game where you are a sharky boss babe.

I like the ideas in this game a lot, it's very similar to the old Jaws game that was back on the PS2 era, basically to a tee. It plays pretty smoothly for the most part and looks beautiful underwater.

Unfortunately, the game kind of overstays its welcome and I still haven't finished it. You are roadblocked to one area at a time where the objectives and collectibles are exactly the same, just harder to do. It gets very repetitive and dare I say, boring. I don't want to be bored in a game where you play as a shark. I wish there was more to explore or do, but it might just mean that this is how far this concept can go unfortunately.

It's very fun to play briefly but the revenge plotline isn't enthralling enough to see it to it's conclusion, unless you really want to.

This is easily the dumbest "dumb fun" game I've played. Maneater knows you don't want to play a shark game and get your ass kicked, so it just lets you loose in a low stakes open world with a nice, linear progression of growing bigger.

It could have worked well by starting you off in the deep end as a baby shark and having you dodging whales and great whites, but I'm happy with the straight power fantasy Tripwire put out. There's nothing complicated here, what you see is what you get, and I' not really sure why the score for this is so low.

The game's A&E reality show stylings are also good fun, giving the game's antagonist the same energy as the Yup guy from Storage Wars. As in, an unlikeable asshole you want to eat. No other game to my knowledge has done this, so I give it points for originality.

The game's only real glaring flaw is the obnoxious land controls, where you flail around on the beach trying to eat people. It works on a big open beach, but when you're navigating the pleasure pier and there's a million indestructible objects making you stuck, it can be frustrating as you don't really have much control over getting unstuck. The combat is also jank as fuck, but it's all worth it once you've bitten all the fins off and get to grab and shake the last bit of life from your much bigger prey.

Do you want to play a Jaws video game with a relatively satisfying progression system? Do you mind a comedy game that's saturated with pop culture references and visual gags? Are you OK with a power fantasy game with a low challenge level? If yes, pick it up on one of its many deep discounts.

A very satisfying game with a fun concept. I was playing on an Xbox Series X and experienced a few frame rate drops but nothing game breaking.

This game also does collectables right. Each collectable helps speed up the evolution of your shark and the game comes with an ability you can upgrade that assists in finding them, no online guides needed. I stopped going for 100% achievements in games recently but this one was a joy to complete given I didn't have to look anything up and going for the 100% improved my experience with the game.

Only other criticism I have is that I wish they gave the ability to customize button layout on the controller as the presets didn't have what I wanted. I wanted to rebind the the thrash ability as furiously wiggling the right analog stick left and right can get tiring and annoying in longer play sessions.

Overall great game and I recommend going for the 100%.

Playtime: 10 hours. Near %100.

It would have been better with the time trials of DLC in the Main Game but alas, it's filled with mostly meaningless collectibles and same quest over and over.

It's still not a bad game, and not overhelming as ubisoft games as it's only 9 hours long so in the end its kinda enjoyable.

I wish someone would make this game better with more mechanics and game modes, and also an Online mode would be dope!

59

Maneater is a game you’ve played a hundred times before. It’s similar to the average Ubisoft game, or any game really— that’s sole purpose is making you check off a list of mindless activities, with no real depth found anywhere… buuuuuuut I still really liked it. It’s a fun collectathon, one of those games where you can switch your brain off and play while watching something in the background or on a second monitor; mind you, this wouldn’t be an easy recommendation if it was stretched into 50+ hours like most Ubisoft games are, it definitely helps that it’s short— never overstaying its welcome— keeping it fun and simple throughout— knowing exactly what it wants to be and never straying away from that; effectively becoming one of those smaller games you play in between something bigger, or use as a palate cleanser, and that… is an easy recommendation.

It annoys me how there’s a very straightforward way to turn this game into something that isn’t a basic map-marker simulator, and that’s to just make it a full-blown RPG; there are hints of that here, with its levels and rarity-based upgradeable mutations, but it never fully commits to the genre— instead only dipping its toe with certain elements and mechanics. I don’t think the game ever gets stale per say, but I was definitely starting to feel repetition by the end, which could’ve been fixed had there been more variety with shark builds— like fuck it! Go full out! Give me a fire shark (don’t tell me that wouldn’t make sense, who cares!), give me a zombie shark, give me a robot shark, give me all the fucking sharks! But they don’t… they limit it to four/five different builds, and most are incredibly safe and boring. It would honestly surprise me if most people didn’t stick with electricity for the majority of the game, seeming as it’s the best for almost every situation. The progression in general is inconsistent: starting off slow, ramping up till about the five-hour mark, then remaining stagnant throughout the remainder of the game. It was getting to the point where I had everything upgraded and couldn’t dump my points into anything, which is painful when you have copious amounts; it would’ve made the game more rewarding if it had base stats that you could gradually upgrade, things like swim speed, damage, health, etc, instead of it all depending on equipables.

If it had done all of that, plus had varied enemies, this would’ve genuinely been a great game; but sadly you’re forced to fight a bunch of humans that are all carbon copies of one another, and vaguely similar sea life to the point where it doesn’t really affect how you engage with them. Some of the later infamy bosses (which is a boring, repetitive, grindy system by the way) get really tanky too, which literally made my fingers hurt from having to press the same buttons hundreds of times, they could’ve just implemented a simple hold-down feature.

In terms of narrative, this is a simple revenge story about a bull shark going on a killing spree after witnessing the death of her mother at the hands of a despicable human. It works. I liked it. I enjoy the loose threads that Maneater tries incorporating in between its ridiculous gameplay moments, and it’s serviceable; don’t expect too much besides some light satirical social commentary on certain issues regarding the ocean, and that’s fine for a game like this! I will say that the narrator misses 80% of the time, by saying either incredibly unfunny puns, or just constantly repeating the same shit. He was running out of lines by the end of the game, and my playthrough was on the short end, seeing as most people spent around 10-16 hours getting 100%. I can’t imagine how annoying he gets when you’re on your 10th or 15th hour… it’s cool that you can turn him off though. I also really dig Scaly Pete, his character has a nice little arc throughout the game and I like the actor's performance. Seeing the cycle of violence pass through generations is always an interesting theme that I’ve come across in movies and games alike, and it’s done pretty well here.

BUT MAN… This game is a nightmare to run, I have a powerful PC and the framerate was constantly fluctuating between 50-160, which I’m guessing is thanks to Denuvo and not the way it looks (because it doesn’t look that good, except for those underwater environments)… and my god do I hate this anti-piracy bs, when it literally doesn’t do SHIT since the games get cracked in a week or so anyways. It doesn’t help that Maneater doesn’t have too many settings, meaning I can’t cap the framerate… It’s actually a bit funny how every game I end up playing on PC has either terrible optimization, or just a lack of settings when that’s one of the most important things you should absolutely focus on when developing a PC game. Anyways, good game, shark go brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Playtime: 7.7 hours

Every Game I've Ever Played - Ranked (By Score)
2020 - Ranked

It’s simple, Maneater’s appeal came from playing as a shark. There’s really nothing like it that comes to mind (apart from the 2006 Jaws Unleashed) , so it definitely filled a gap in the market. Progression was enjoyable with starting off as a baby and growing up into an uber shark while evolving and customising it with different looks that provided certain strengths—very light RPG elements sprinkled in with a checklist of things to do, usually the same tasks over and over in each of the eight regions. The repetition got a little stale later on.

It was pretty in terms of visuals, challenging when it came to bigger enemies, and the humour was good in its mockumentary style. I liked it, and consider it mindless video game fun.

The structure is the typical Ubisoft open world-fare. So basically, a LOT of aimless collectathoning, copy paste content, do this mission 5 times, now go to the next area and do it all again. So that prevents this game from being anything too special, but that doesn't stop it from being a lot of fun anyway.

It's like if those old feeding frenzy type flash games were expanded with light rpg mechanics. Starting as a small shark and growing to a comically horrifying size over the course of the game, choosing perks and augments to upgrade further. The soundtrack could have done more work but since it was so nothing I opted to play my spotify playlist over it, which definitely aided the experience. Flying out of the water and landing on a boat while people are firing rockets at you, thrashing maniacally destroying anything in your path is such a viscerally fun power fantasy. It may get repetitive by the end especially if you're going for 100%...but especially if you're playing your own music over it, going sicko mode as a 2,000 pound shark excreting electrical currents in a 30 foot radius is some pure video gamey fun that's sometimes a bit hard to find these days. There's also some level of challenge especially if you're trying to fight something bigger than you. The underwater combat can be on the janky side but it's satisfying to come out on top. And it's especially satisfying to waltz up to something that used to give you trouble and eat it whole. On a similar note they like to tease you with collectibles that you can't really reach until you're bigger which is a lot of fun imo.

It's also got a bit of storytelling which is actually decently effective. Not the kind of game that's very replayable but I had a good time seeing everything it had to offer while it was on gamepass earlier this year. I didn't get to try out the DLC, but it seemed like it branches out into some more mission types, something that would likely have improved the base game. Either way just pure dumb fun.

I can't think of too many other games that are so fundamentally flawed, yet it is easy to ignore those flaws because it manages to nail the primary objective: it's just really good fun.

It's the best way I can think to describe Maneater, a monumentally daft game that relies on zero brainpower, and showcases pretty much everything within the first 10 minutes of gameplay. It's not a huge spoiler to say that the only real progress you can make here is that the shark you control gets big. Really big. And really fierce. And by the end of your 10-ish hour playthrough, you'll find taking out boats, whales, other killer sharks isn't much of a challenge. Yet it remains undeniably fun.

It's an incredibly simple plot - you're a shark, a shark hunter is after you, you eat a lot to get bigger and eventually confront aforementioned shark hunter. It's presented as a very tongue in cheek nature documentary - the kind you'd see on Discovery or something - but the cut scenes are few and far between. You'll spend 99% of your time scouring the different sections of the map (these actually DO have a bit of variation and range from a swampy alligator filled bayou to a vast open ocean) chomping of various marine wildlife. And the occasional careless bather as well.

It's definitely a flawed game - it really could have done with a bit of variety with the main missions, but throughout, you'll be given the same objectives - kill x number of seals/sharks/swordfish/turtles/humans etc etc. There are plenty of intertwining underwater passageways and a stack of collectables to find and I found enough enjoyment at the daft killing frenzies to get all 1000 achievement points for finding all collectables etc, but I can't deny that I was relieved to finally finish it.

It's not the prettiest game in the world - aside from the various body parts you can equip to your shark, all other creatures seem to look the same, and the effects of the sea are actually pretty rubbish. I'm probably just spoiled by the incredible water effects on Sea of Thieves, but when you're cruising around below the waves, things just seem to aimlessly float. And it would have been far more interesting to see the different sea creatures interact with each other, rather than just with your shark. Maybe the other marine predators are just REALLY fussy eaters, as they only attacked me and totally ignored the shoal of mackerel/seals etc etc that were minding their own business just a few feet away.

I would be very interested to see if a sequel is ever made, because there's a fair bit to work with here. It's undeniably enjoyable - being a bloodthirsty, ravenous killing machine is quite a laugh.

Maneater is silly, samey and not exactly a technical masterpiece. But there's some charm here that like a drop of blood in the ocean make it difficult to ignore.